A chef by trade, David Nolan has cooked up a dish of a different kind for active people seeking a personal challenge.

The ingredients include 20 tons of steel transported in a convoy of eight semi trucks along with pads, rings, Plexiglass and even carpet destined for Qualcomm Stadium. With the recipe by Nolan and a team of designers, the result is an obstacle course for the debut of Alpha Warrior on Saturday and Sunday.

The slogan goes, “No Miles, No Mud, No Mercy.” So it’s not a distance event or a mud run, certainly not in rugged terrain or a rural outpost. Instead, this is a course of more than 20 obstacles brought to urban areas, somewhat akin to the “American Ninja Warrior” reality TV program.

“It’s almost for anybody who wants to challenge himself, whether they run marathons or triathlons or play football on weekends,” said Nolan, the CEO and founder, who has an athletic background in martial arts. “If they want to get out and be active, it’s for them. There’s nothing like Alpha Warrior that has been built before for the masses.”

Included is one elite heat with prize money over the two days. Otherwise, waves of competitors 16 and older enter a course that has structures with multiple obstacles. There is one try at each stop with no time limit.

A test run was conducted in Nolan’s hometown of San Antonio this year. Then it was decided to head to San Diego because of its proximity to military bases, the outdoor lifestyle, the sunny weather and some local business contacts, according to Nolan.

The venture welcomes competitors from Wounded Warriors for injured service members and the local Challenged Athletes Foundation for those overcoming physical disabilities.

Challenged athlete Kionte Storey of San Diego has been studying the obstacle course for a try some time during this year’s series of stops around the country.

“If it’s physical, I want to try it out, no matter how impossible it might sound for me,” said Storey, whose right leg was amputated as the result of an explosion while serving with the Marines in Afghanistan. “I still want to push myself to that limit and see how far I might go.”

Storey, who now works for the FBI, spent most of his two-year recovery at Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park. His initial goal was to walk again, but he has overcome personal obstacles to take on even greater physical challenges.

Among Storey’s latest accomplishments was climbing the highest peak in Antarctica in January, reaching 16,000 feet on Mount Vinson Massif.